Cream of {anything} Soup

Today I'm going to show you how to make your own Cream Soup Base.  You can turn this into any type of cream soup you want (cream of celery, mushroom, onion, etc...)  Here's what you'll need:

Ingredients:
2T Butter or Fat from homemade broth/stock
2T Onions, optional
2T Flour, heaping
1 1/2C Chicken Broth/Stock
1 1/2C Milk
1/2t Poultry Seasoning
1/4t Onion Powder
1/4t Garlic Powder
1/8t Black Pepper
1/4t Salt (optional.  I omitted)
1/4t Parsley
1/8t Paprika
Helpful Hint: Measure all spices (except salt) out in a little ramekin ahead of time.

I used some fat from the top of some frozen chicken stock.  I scraped

it with a spoon until I got about 2T.  You can just use 2T butter if you want.

Since I didn't want a bunch of fat floating in the soup base, I scraped

the rest off and put it in a container to keep in the freezer for future use.

Plop that in your pan.  I swear, there is nothing like the smell of

the fat from really good homemade stock.  It's so rich and fragrant!

Add in a couple of tablespoons of diced onion.  This is optional.

I just thought it would give a good browned onion taste to it.

Stir until golden brown, about 5 minutes

Add in 2 heaping tablespoons flour.  Sprinkle it evenly over the fat.

Mix well.  This is called a roux.  Bad pic, sorry.

Make the mistake of adding another T of flour and end up with

this clump that you have to add some stock to, to thin it out.

You want to basically cook the flour to a golden color.  If you don't

do this, you'll have a real raw flour-y taste that is unappealing.  This

color here is just right.  Some of that is due to the caramelized onions.

Add in your chicken stock a little at a time.   I do this so it doesn't

end up with a bunch of clumps and stock that I have to incorporate.

It will eventually come together, but I find that more difficult.  

This is what your base should look like now.

Bring to a boil, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom of the pan.

At this point, you essentially have chicken gravy!  Save half now if

you think you'll need some gravy tonight!  If not, let's move on...

Since I have a nice smooth texture to my 'gravy', I have no problem

pouring in all of my milk at once.  If it was lumpy, I'd do this in small batches.

It will be thin and watery at this point.  That's okay.  Stir well.

Add your spices (without the salt) to the sauce now.

Stir to incorporate.  Looks like cream soup, huh?!  Give it a taste.
Need some salt?  You can add some now, but I caution you...
sometimes the recipes we use have a lot of salt in other products. 
You can always add some later.  I didn't add any at this time.

Bring to a gentle boil again, scraping pan bottom all the while.

Use what you need now in a recipe, or store some in a baggie.

Label baggies first, then fill and lie down flat in the freezer.

This makes about 3C, which is two soup cans worth.

Notes:

I used this soup base to make some Tuna Casserole last night.  This is the BEST cream of anything soup I've ever tasted!  Especially if you use homemade stock.  There really is no comparison, and it's soooo easy! 

I wanted this soup to be a 'cover all bases' soup, so I didn't add anything like mushrooms or celery to flavor it.  If you wanted to make a cream of 'vegetable' soup, you'd just add your mushrooms/celery/onions/broccoli in at the beginning with the fat and saute a bit.  You may need more fat depending on how many veggies you use.

My estimate for the cost of this whole double batch is 36 1/2 CENTS!  That's 18 cents for a 'can' of soup!

I'm using 10c for a teaspoon of spice, 5c for 1/2t, 2.5c per 1/4t, 1.2c per 1/8t.

While not exact, I think I'm actually on the high side since I buy almost all of my spices for 99c per container.

That just amazes me!  

And it's so much better than the store-bought!  You can control the salt, too.  Store-bought ones are just filled with (way too much) sodium!

Click HERE to learn how to make broth/stock.  

Click HERE to learn how to do a small dice on an onion. 

Click HERE for Tuna Casserole Recipe. 

Recipe courtesy of Tammy's Recipes.

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